The Place of Lions

Review

This is a very good survival story which has some wonderful descriptive passages of Africa in general and lions in particular. On a journey into Tanzania where his father is to take a new job, the plane carrying Chris and his father crashes. The pilot is seriously injured and unconscious. His father has a broken leg but Chris, though hurt, is ambulatory.

This is fortunate because the plane has crashed near where a pride of lions is staying and Chris is witness to incredible danger there. The older male is being challenged by a young one and only barely manages to maintain his supremacy after a fierce battle. Chris has, in the meantime, decided to go for help. Not far off poachers have machine gunned elephants and incurred the wrath of two men who love Africa and are dedicated to preserving its wildlife.

The poachers find Chris but first drive away and then decide to kidnap him. Chris has been followed across the plain by the old, dying lion and a mysterious connection has been made as both head for a hill where the lion hopes to die and Chris hopes to find help.

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The Goats by Brock Cole. (2010, Square Fish. ISBN 9780312611910. Order Info.) Novel. 192 pages. Gr 5-9.
In this modern survival story Laura and Howie are the victims of a camp prank where a boy and a girl are stripped and left on an island in the lake. They are the Goats, chosen because of their inability to fit in. Laura and Howie decide to disappear both for revenge and because they don't want to return to the cruelty of the kids at the camp.